Cloth top sock



W. F. CONNOR CLOTH TOP SOCK Oct. 16, 1951 Filed Dec. 6, 1948 Fig. 2.

Fig.4;

I n ventoi Waller F. Connor Patented Oct. 16, 1951 CLOTH TOP SOCK Walter F. Connor, Lowell, Mass., assignor to Hub Hosiery Mills, Lowell, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application December 6, 1948, Serial No. 63,671

1 Claim.

This invention relates generally to hosiery and more particularly to a sock construction in which the foot, ankle and leg is constructed of knitted material, while the cuff is constructed of woven material.

The primary object of this invention is to make available to the hosiery manufacturer a greatly increased variety of designs in the'cuffs of socks. Heretofore hosiery manufacturers have been definitely limited in the designs of the cufis because of the limitation of the knitting machines, the designs to be incorporated being only those capable of being produced by these knitting machines. In other words, if the knitting machines are used to produce both the foot and all parts of the leg of the sock, only those designs capable of being knitted by the knitting machines can be incorporated in the leg and/or cufi. This invention enables the hosiery manufacturer to avail himself of a very wide variety of woven materials, with an indefinitely large number of designs.

Another object of this invention is to provide a sock construction in which the cuifcan be constructed of woven material which is relatively inexpensive, the necessary elasticity in the cufi being accomplished by sewing the cuff with elastic thread so that the cuif is gathered and contracted, it being noteworthy that the woven material need not be of special construction since the elasticity is added thereto according to this invention and the relatively expensive process of weaving elastic threads into the cuff material is eliminated. In this connection, it may be noted that applicant is aware that cuffs having elastic threads woven into the material of the cuff have been proposed prior to this invention, this invention being not concerned with this older and much more expensive means for producing a cuff.

With these objects definitely in view, this invention resides in certain novel features of construction, combination and arrangement of elements and portions a will be hereinafter described in detail in the specification, particularly pointed out in the appended claim, and illustrated in the accompanying drawing which forms a material part of this application, and in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a sock constructed according to this invention and worn with the cuff folded on itself;

Figure 2 is a side elevational view of the cufi and the upper portion of the ankle of a sock, constructed according to this invention;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view, taken substantially on the line 33 in Figure2; and

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view of a cufi represented as worn in Figure 1.

Similar characters of reference designate similar or identical element and portions throughout, the specification and throughout the difierent views in the drawing.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, this sock includes a foot portion l0 and an ankle l2. A section of material l4 woven from inelastic threads [6 has its ends sewn together at H! to comprise a cufi. The lower edge of the cufi is sewn, preferably with inelastic thread to the upper end of the ankle l2, as indicated at 20. The threads used to sew the ends of the material l4 together, at l8, need not be elastic.

The cufi so formed is sewn across with elastic thread 22 on a machine with multiple needles, or can be sewn several times across with elastic thread 22 on a single needle machine so as to gather and to contract the cuff. In Figure 3, one possible type of stitching is represented as used in sewing the elastic threads 22 on the material I4, but other types of stitching might well be used to apply the elastic thread to the cufi.

If desired, the edge of the cuff remote from the ankle l2 may be hemmed as indicated at 24 and sewn one or more times, as indicated at 26.

It should be clearly understood that thecuff is constructed of inelastic woven material sewn with elastic thread to make the finished product definitely elastic, and it should also be pointed out that the elastic threads 22 need not be regularly spaced in relation to the threads composing the inelastic material [4, so that ordinary sewing machines may be used to apply the elastic thread to the material l4 and the task of producing a finished product is greatly reduced.

The foregoing will clearly indicate how this invention can be used and further description would appear unnecessary. Minor variations from the embodiment described above and illustrated in the drawing may be resorted to without departure from the spirit of this invention 3 and the scope thereof should be determined only as limited by a proper interpretation of the terminology used in the subjoined claim.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new is:

As a new article of manufacture, a sock comprising foot and ankle portions of knitted fabric, and a tubular cufi of woven inelastic fabric stitched to said ankle portion, said cuff including longitudinal pleats extending from end to 10 end thereof and further including a hem on its free end, and longitudinally spaced rows of circumferentially extending elasticstitches in the cuff for yieldingly resisting expansion thereof,

certain of said elastic stitches further securing the hem.

WALTER F. CONNOR.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 618,267 Gutsche Jan. 24, 1899 1,968,967 Snader Aug. '7, 1934 2,236,693 Newman e VAp,r. l, 1941 2.418347 Haaz Apr. 1. 1947 

